1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a motor vehicle powertrain, and, in particular, to an apparatus for torsionally decoupling components of a vehicle powertrain.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Power plants used in cars, SUVs, and trucks tend to generate torsional disturbances primarily of an impulsive nature, that degrade customer-perceived noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) quality both transients including clunk, thump, rattle, roughness, and steady state disturbances including gear whine, moan, growl. The durability of vehicle powertrains, whose sources for such disturbances are an engine and transmission, can be adversely affected by these disturbances.
Furthermore, a vehicle driveline, including its driveshaft and axle, has inherent torsional resonance modes that tend to be sympathetic to such disturbances or aligned with corresponding torsional modes within the transmission mechanism. This modal alignment causes significant amplification of both axle and transmission gear noise.
Several types of dampers are widely used in the industry to minimize the negative effects of such tensional excitation forces. Their performance is limited to a narrow tuning frequency range and amplitude reduction provided by the mass and damping. Moreover, their complexity, added weight and cost are undesired.
Other solutions use flexible couplings in lieu of typical U-joints or CV joints. However, these couplings tend to deteriorate significantly powertrain bending characteristics and significantly limit the driveline angle capacity required for a solid beam axle application, thus inducing risks to NVH quality and durability including critical speed.